Deerhunter Recruit Ex-Cheerleader With "Bad Attitude" As Guitarist

Deerhunter are once again a five-piece. After losing guitarist Colin Mee for a second time, the band announced his replacement on Friday (May 2): Whitney Petty, a former Georgia cheerleader "with a bad attitude.

According to the bands infamous gift-littered blog, the band hired Petty as their new axe woman for their upcoming live dates. The tour comes in the lead-up to Deerhunters highly anticipated Cryptograms follow-up, Microcastle, due out later this year on Halloween.

Via the blog, Bradford Cox  or "indie rocks wildest front-man as Spin calls him  assures us: "This is not a joke (why would I be joking?) as she is in the band and all.

Its unclear yet whether Petty will contribute to any of the bands studio work, but she has already curated her own MP3 compilation for the Deerhunter blogs long-running Micromix, series. On it, youll find classic cock-rockin sounds by Aerosmith, Tom Petty, the Boss and Heart, hinting that she may bring some old-time boogie-woogie to Deerhunters highbrow noise.

Here are the dates and stops (Calgary and Toronto included) for Deerhunters upcoming tour, where they will be joined by HEALTH, Liars, newly signed Thrill Jockey artists High Places and Nine Inch Nails: